In the existing art, environmental sensor systems (radar, video, lidar, etc.) for producing a highly available environmental model for highly automated and fully automated driving functions are supplied with electrical power via a singular, or individual, connection. In addition, in the existing art only one power supply unit is present in the vehicle, or, if a plurality of power sources/producers are present, these are galvanically coupled and are not independent in the system network. If there is a failure of the electrical power supply or power source, one or more sensors of the environmental sensor system will then no longer be available. In order to ensure a remaining degree of functionality, the sensor set (i.e. the totality of all the sensors installed in the vehicle) is divided into two subsets and connected to independent power sources. When one power supply fails, the system therefore still has available a subset of sensor information with which a driving maneuver can be carried out according to a defined driving strategy, as long as the driver does not take over.